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ANOMALISA (2015)
A man, crippled by the mundanity of his life, experiences something out of the ordinary in this stop-motion animation from Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson…
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MR. ROBOT, 2.1 & 2.2 – ‘eps2.0_unm4sk-pt1.tc’ & ‘eps2.0_unm4sk-pt2.tc’
It’s always a mistake to think that you have any real grasp on what’s happening in Mr Robot, given that creator Sam Esmail could upend the whole thing at any moment, showing you that black was white and truths were lies, but the basic situation laid out in this well-paced double bill is as follows:…
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GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)
Following an invasion of ghosts across Manhattan, paranormal experts Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates, nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann, and subway worker Patty Tolan, band together to stop this otherworldly threat.
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HIGH-RISE (2015)
Life for the residents of a tower block begins to run out of control in Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G Ballard’s novel…
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PREACHER, 1.7 – ‘He Gone’
My biggest gripe about Preacher has been how scattershot everything’s been, but “He Gone” felt more harmonious and structured. The flashbacks didn’t seem as random, they enlightened the present day’s concerns—mainly the mindset of anti-hero Jesse (Dominic Cooper). Our preacher’s a man whose father was violently executed in front of him as a boy, but…
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OUTLANDER, 2.13 – ‘Dragonfly in Amber’
“Dragonfly in Amber” avoids the elephant in the room. The season-long build-up to the devastating battle of Culloden is simply that, a slowly mounting, unfulfilled tension that provides the fuel for a different kind of resolution in this year’s finale. The tragedy of that day’s cultural genocide takes place off screen, perhaps held back until…
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SATAN’S BLADE (1984)
Satan’s Blade is indicative of the archetypal quality and budgets of 1980s ‘video nasties’. It’s an inexpensive slasher film mimicking the tried and tested equation that blood, horror, and naked flesh equals profit. It serves more as a warning that when cheap horror flooded the home video market, the results varied wildly. For every quality…
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MAGGIE’S PLAN (2015)
It’s been more than a decade since Rebecca Miller’s harrowing directorial debut, Angela (2015), and although her subsequent films (Personal Velocity, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee) have more or less remained in the realm of somber drama, Maggie’s Plan explores lighter territory. Without meaning to attach a negative…
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PREACHER, 1.6 – ‘Sundowner’
I was glad this episode gave us a taste of the spirit and twisted humour of the comic books, even though it was still dialled down. The opening sequence was a much-needed jolt to the system, of a show that’s wisely trying to flesh out these characters and universe, but simultaneously losing a lot of…
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THE ONES BELOW (2015)
To say The Ones Below is inspired by the films of Roman Polanski would be a gross understatement. Motherhood-inflected horror, the conflict between pairs of parents, and the strangeness of city-living (where one home’s stacked on top of another), all feature here. From Rosemary’s Baby (1968) to Carnage (2011), there’s barely a scene in which Polanski’s…
